Japan inspects tunnels after collapse

Japan ordered immediate inspections for dozens of highway tunnels in the mountainous country after hundreds of concrete ceiling slabs in one tunnel collapsed onto moving vehicles below, killing nine people.

Those killed in Sundayís accident were traveling in three vehicles in the 3-mile long Sasago Tunnel about 50 miles west of Tokyo. The tunnel, on a highway that links the capital to central Japan, opened in 1977.

The transport ministry on Monday ordered that inspections be carried out immediately on 49 other tunnels around the country that are either on highways or roads managed by the central government and of similar construction.

Police and the highway operator Central Japan Expressway Co. were investigating why the concrete slabs in the Sasago Tunnel collapsed. An inspection of the tunnelís roof in September found nothing amiss, according to Satoshi Noguchi, a company official.

The operator was exploring the possibility that bolts holding a metal piece suspending the panels above the road had become aged, he said. The panels, measuring about 16 feet by 4 feet, and 3 inches thick, were installed when the tunnel was constructed in 1977.

Recovery work at the tunnel was suspended Monday while the roof was being reinforced.